Behind the Scenes [No More Updates]

Chapter 3

Finally, it was Friday! And my mum decided to give me a lift to school, or at least most of the way. Unfortunately, I still had to walk five minutes to the school gates but it was a lot better than nothing.

"Is this close enough?" my mum asked as she pulled up beside the pavement.

"It's fine. Thanks for the lift!"

"Okay, have a good day at school."

I climbed out of the car and continued walking the rest of the way. The wind was chilly but I reassured myself that it wasn't far to go, and decided to set my mind on other things. How would the lessons go today? Would we get much homework? I hoped not. Homework was awful, it took up your precious time at home which could be spent doing nothing. And nothing was always more fun than homework.

After stopping by a road, I looked left and right closely. No cars. I began to walk again and concentrated on the path ahead of me. There was a group of girls heading in my direction, all from my school. But I couldn't look ahead for long.

Just before I had reached halfway in the road, a car came speeding round the corner out of nowhere. My legs froze instantly. I'd never felt so petrified in my life. I'd never felt pure terror like that. My stomach was churning and my eyes were fixed on the car coming towards me. It was like there were magnets on the ground and the soles of my shoes, and I couldn't pull my feet away from the floor.

It was coming closer by the millisecond. My heart was pounding.

And then my brain shot into gear. There were no magnets holding my feet to the ground. I leapt backwards, my legs wobbling like jelly. The car jerked to a halt and the driver shook her fist at me. I could only stare in pure embarrassment and fear.

She drove off, and I hurried across the road. The girls were staring at me so I kept my eyes on the path ahead. I still felt flushed. I felt like I was going to collapse in any second.

I made it to school and didn't mention a word about it. Ari came up to me and smiled. She looked paler than ever.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah. Are you?"

"Oh, I'm fine! But, um, I might not be coming to school next week."

"Aw, why?" I asked sadly. She was my closest friend, if not my only friend at school and I would have to look for someone else to eat lunch with and work with in lessons.

"My dad's taking me somewhere. He said it depends, but I'm most likely going to stay off school for a week. He told the teacher yesterday, he called them."

To say I was confused was an understatement. This was so sudden, like the car nearly knocking me over, that I felt my stomach churning again. Was something wrong? I didn't want to persist, but I felt like it was my job as her friend to ask.

"What's up? Is there something wrong?"

"No, why would there be? Everything's fine, don't worry," she said. "And it's Friday!"

I forced a smile. "Yes! Finally some time to sleep in."

The bell went off loudly, ringing in our ears. We sighed and entered our classroom for registration. It was loud, and everyone was messing about on their phones or playing silly games.

Well, we were too mature for that.

***

"Mum, I'm home," I called out to the kitchen. Not to be sexist, but that's where she was most of the time.

"How was school?" she replied.

"Eh," I muttered. I contemplated telling her about the car almost knocking me over, but I thought, what did it matter? She would probably only tell me off for not looking anyway.

I entered the living room and flopped down on the sofa, before getting out my phone. Checking my social media was the first thing I did once I got home, and I'd usually start a text conversation with Ari which is what I did today.

Me: Hey

Sending...

Sent

A crack of light peeked through the curtains directly onto my eyes, almost blinding me. Irritated, I got up and shut them completely with a growl. The simple task had put me in a bad mood, so I slumped grumpily back on the chair and stared at my phone.

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

It had been two minutes. I didn't expect a reply straight away, did I? Maybe her phone was on silent, or she hasn't got around to checking it. Either way, I was being more impatient by the seconds.

Ping

Finally! I thought to myself.

Ari: cant talk, busy

Seriously?

Me: ok, plz hurry up!

I didn't know why she was avoiding me or what she was up to, but I was determined to find out.

***

Silly Ari isn't very secretive about whatever she's doing!

Are Jessi's investigation skills very good? You'll have to find out :)

Thank you for reading, I strongly appreciate it :3

~Jadey❤